Welcome to TravelSmart  

TravelSmart in Victoria Park

The Town of Victoria Park participated in the TravelSmart Household program in 2006 and successfully reduced car travel overall by 5% (from 78% to 73%) and environmentally friendly modes of travel increased from 22% to 27% (up 5%).¹ So well done and lets keep up it going!  We want to encourage residents to ask themselves whether they (you/we) need to drive everywhere all the time.

The Town of Victoria Park's Commitment to TravelSmart

The Town is actively involved in providing infrastructure that encourages you to walk, cycle and use public transport.  Pedestrian friendly retail precincts, pedestrian crossings, upgrading of bus shelters, improvements to cycling paths and on road bike shoulders, provision of bicycle parking facilities around the Town, and the ongoing improvement of shared paths, are just some of the infrastructure programs that the Town is continually working on.  TravelSmart prizes, programs, events and information are also provided by the Town to schools, community and businesses.

If you are thinking of switching to sustainable travel and would like some more information, support or encouragement on how to make the switch, contact the Transport Officer on 9311 8148 or email travelsmart@vicpark.wa.gov.au.  We have a vast range of resources such as local cycling maps and car pooling options, to help make your sustainable travel choices easier and more attractive.

Remember - if lots of people make little changes, it adds  up to big benefits on lots of fronts

Background to TravelSmart 

TravelSmart is a program that aims to help make it easy for people who want to walk, cycle, take public transport or car pool more often, to do so through the provision of good information on how to switch to these alternative travel modes....encouraging you to ask yourself "Do I need to drive everywhere all the time?".

The program was started by the Department for Planning and Infrastructure (DPI) and by 2007 it had been delivered to three and a half million people across the world.  It is considered an extremely successful program that works in helping people take up more sustainable travel more often.  Now a program based on similar behaviour change techniques, called "Living Smart" is being delivered by the DPI to help people who want to save household energy and water as well as car travel.

TravelSmart is based on the principal that small individual travel behaviour changes make a big difference overall and counters the common view that the problem is too big for an individual to make a difference.  For example, if everyone who now drives to work each day chose to travel sustainably once a week, there would immediately be 20% fewer cars on the road.  This would mean 20% less air pollution, 20% less congestion, less traffic accidents, and 20% less more people taking active transport with all the associated benefits of this.

State Government 

About 80% of car trips by Perth residents are made by car, usually as a single driver occupant and 40% of these car trips are necessary, whilst research shows that good alternatives exist for another 40% of our current car trips.  The driving habit  and a lack of information influences peoples travel choices for the second 40%.

To learn more about TravelSmart in Western Australia, go to the Department for Planning and Infrastructure TravelSmart pages.

Federal Government 

The Australia Governments TravelSmart website is available here.

What's the Problem with Driving all the Time Anyway?

Well, our reliance on the car means that a huge proportion of our city is dedicated to roads and car parks, and of course people are always wanting more and better roads and more and bigger car parks.  The demand for more roads and more car parks can never be met without turning cities into solid bitumen monstrosities.  Additionally, we are, as a population, using vast quantities of oil - a non-renewable resource which contributes to climate change.  Peak oil is looming.  Driving everywhere all the time is costly financially, environmentally and has many adverse consequences for our physical and psychological health.  There are a myriad of reason why not driving everywhere all the time makes good sense.

¹ Department for Planning and Infrastructure, TravelSmart Household Final Evaluation Report, Town of Victoria Park, November 2007